The Demonstration Way.
It’s sometimes difficult to imagine what struggling readers go through. Reading was never a problem for most of us. Words on a page never looked like Greek. I grew up reading; books were around me all of the time. My parents read, my siblings read, my teachers encouraged me to read . I’m sure most of you, my fellow Reading Specialists, have had the same experience. As a result we are able to read easily and consequently comprehension followed. It’s a no-brainer!
Unfortunately, for some of our students, the words on the page do look like Greek. Fluency and comprehension are out of the question. How can we, as teachers, fully understand the struggles our students go through on a daily basis? Well, I found a site that allows us to put ourselves in their shoes. It allows us to simulate their experience. It will blow you away!!!
You can share in this experience by clicking on the text pictured on the left. You can then click on the ‘Try It’ link and you will be well on your way to grasping the difficulties faced by our students. Hopefully understanding what they go through will lead to awareness and this will awareness will improve our instructional practices which in turn will improve our students’ learning.
Hope this has a profound effect on how you teach.
Please let me know how the exercises affected your thoughts about struggling readers.
Follow this link for an unforgettable experience:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/misunderstoodminds/attention.html
The first lecture with Dr.James brought home the message, it seems like a lifetime ago but the general idea stuck with me.The experience of the different languages and attempting to read it and grasping at anything that looked familiar was taxing on the brain. The languages used that I did have a working knowledge of were still a challenge with English being the only really comfortable one.I imagine that our students encounter the same problems and it is our responsibility to bring them to some level of mastery. Another way to keep myself aware of how challenging learning a language can be is trying to learn another one,which accounts for my losing battle with French. The experience was enlightening though.We really do take what we know for granted sometimes and suppose the same of our students.
ReplyDeleteI thoroughy agree with you that sometimes we as teachers cannot conceptualise what it is to not be able to read or to be scared and intimidated by books. I grew up in a home where my grandfather and uncle were teachers and having no television in the home, everybody read. I have been reading and loving it since the age of four. To me it is the most natural and automatic thing in the world.
ReplyDeleteI am beginning to think that these struggling readers might feel the same way that some of us feel when confronted by a room full of technology that scares the dickens out of us. lol. I will try the website you recommended and really make an effort to try to understand these students' fears as well as find ways of allaying same. If we can empathise with the students, we will have more patience and be more inclined to find alternative ways of getting through to them.
I agree with you Jody. It's important that we remind ourselves of their difficulties even though we may not be able to identify with what they are going through. It's easy to become a bit fustrated when our students take a long time to 'get it' but we must not add to their problems
ReplyDeleteby joining in the many persons who may not be championing their cause.